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Yah, that's kind of how I've changed. I got really into sports nutrition in the off-season and talked to Berkhan, Berardi, and a few others about making IF work with endurance sports and they all basically said that it can't, except for on off days, which I now do.

The basic protocol they seemed to agree on was this:For PM rides (after the workday):-Hold off breakfast until 2 hrs after waking or more.-No carbs with breakfast except from veggies.-High in protein, high in fats, high in veggies. I typically do 3 omega 3 eggs, 1 turkey sausage and lots of spinach or kale with some free range butter (high in omega 3 and 6's).-Lunch you can have some carbs, but try to have them high in residual proteins and fibers (beans, legumes, etc). I stick with Berardi's rec of a portion the size of a fist. High in protein, high in fats, high in veggies.- 2-3 hrs pre ride I take some R-ALA/nutrient partitioning supp and eat around 80g (two fist sized portion) or starchy vegetables, rice, or both with a small amount of protein from meat or yogurt. If its 2 hrs before the ride that's it, if its 3ish I hit up about 20-30g from a bar 1 hr before.-During the ride I try to replace 300-400 kcal/hr. My 3x20 yesterday was 2:15 and somewhere around 1500kj, so I still get a deficit.-After aim for starchy, fast digesting carbs and proteins. I hit a shake with whey hydrosolate/casein hydrosolate with sugar free rice cereal. I take some more R-ALA and have a nice big dinner about an hour later with some potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, etc and occasionally some gluten free pasta with some meat and lots of veggies.

For AM rides:-If you have a few hours before the ride (a weekend), eat a decently rounded breakfast depending on ride duration. If its long and hard aim for the same amount of carbs I mentioned above about 2 hrs before the ride. If riding within an hour, hit up a bar upon waking or start fueling sooner in the ride (around 45min).-Fuel the same during the ride and the same afterwards. After your big post ride meal stick to protein/veggie/meals like above.-If you have a big ride the next day or next morning, have a hearty dinner similar to your post ride meal. Studies show that people who ate 80% of their carbs at night compared to spread throughout the day lost more bodyfat, had better good cholesterol, higher testosterone, lost more bodyweight, reported better satiety, and had better mood compared to those that spread it throughout the day. Also, you still maintain some insulin sensitivity from the workout and have your carbs from when cortisol is the lowest.

It takes some tweaking, but I started my base/threshold training Nov. 1st and weighed 175. As of yesterday I'm 168 and my riding, mood, bloodwork, etc. are great.

No its not, since its not a complete fast. Same number of calories in the same general window, but instead of eating for 16 waking hours, you only eat for 8. Pretty solid and scientifically substantiated concept. Unless you're heavily glycogen depleted uptake is rather limited on off-days anyways so its best to take advantage of optimal timing of cortisol, GH patterns, etc. For most people this would mean waiting to eat your first meal until noon, which is hardly a recipe for disaster. You should take a look at some of the IF protocols, there is a hell of a lot of research behind them and general nutrient timing based on cortisol patterns.

For me a rest day fast means I skip breakfast, but lunch is bigger. The idea is not to completely fast, but to avoid eating when cortisol and fat utilization are at their highest. Total calories are still the same....

R-ALA isn't really a supplement. The fact that you think it is proves how little you really know about nutrition. For athletes that eat a high CHO diet aka endurance athletes R-ALA can have pretty powerful nutrient partitioning and insulin mediation effects. Its pretty commonly supplemented fatty acid, like fish oil or CLA and can also aid in the reduction of inflammation. But yah, steady diet of popping pills all day I guess

Leangains.com or Berardi's site have more than enough info, studies, etc. I can post plenty of links, but you wouldn't read them because they're not from a Hunter Allan book and weren't innovative 5 years ago. Simply googling the term 'intermittent fasting'. Here's a link to a simple e-book that has tons of info and its from someone that's a nutritionist to a lot of olympians and pro athletes (and was a huge skeptic of any sort of fasting) http://www.precisionnutrition.com/intermittent-fasting

If I were a pro or riding more than I can with a day job I'd have that problem and wouldn't care. Fact of the matter is 2.5 hrs is the max I can get on weekdays and its really not that significant since the rest of my day is spent sitting at a desk. You don't need carbs to sit at a desk. The ability to convert glucose to glycogen decreases by over 75% at rest, which is essentially all of your day except the 2-3hrs post exercise (provided it even utilized glycogen to a significant extent). So if you think avoiding carbs for effectively 4 hours of the day (assuming the normal person eats dinner around 8:30 at night, wakes up at a normal time and just simply eats a larger lunch). If you can actually site one single piece of evidence that suggests that for your average person from a job this would impede recovery I would LOVE to see it as would almost all of the sports nutrition community.

Once you get through those and debunk them let me know. Not all of us are pros that expend 3000kj/ride, so having a little strategy to dieting helps. I feel really sorry for the people that actually pay you for advice considering all I've used is Google, Pubmed, various databases, and sent some emails.

While you're at it, why not address the proponents of IF directly on Twitter or a public forum since they are still much more knowledgeable than I. Remember that I only recommended using it very selectively, not all the time and not like a strength athlete would. I'm not nearly as knowledgeable as they are, but I found he subject interesting so I read each and every study while I was on a work assignment during the off-season. Interesting stuff. What I recommended above is really about just delaying CHO in the morning and eating more protein and less CHO during base since its not necessary for many/most.

and yet you refuse to ever list your credentials and remain anonymous, but we should trust that some dude behind the keyboard with a 3 w/kg is an elite coach.

Explain to me the lack of wisdom behind a protocol that has quite a bit of research to back it up to better time when someone eats what they eat (a normal person). If I were to break down what eat by percentages, I and others that follow certain protocols still get in enough total kcal and more than enough CHO to fuel and recover from their training.

You still can't answer the simple question of how delaying eating breakfast for a few hours could impeded recovery on a rest day? I only use something similar to IF (loosely speaking) on days where I work a day job and rides are sub 3 hrs. As I said above, if my rides were longer, I had a higher weekly volume, or were training for a very glycogen dependent event this would be different. During base its another.

There were a few other studies I posted on Wattage that listed the different amounts of energy expenditure per energy source at several percentages of vo2 max. Under 90% of vo2 max and with adequate exogenous fueling during the ride an athlete will walk away with under 600cal of glycogen depletion from a 3 hr ride with 1 hr spent at 90% of vo2 max. That's 150g of carbs, or what they would take in during the post ride period. Even if the ride were 5 hours, it might deplete 200kcal more out of stores of 2050kcal. During races or a build that utilized a lot of vo2 max and above efforts its definitely more and one could increase CHO accordingly.

What I find amazing is most cyclists "Can't keep on weight", but aren't lean, just skinny fat.

You and anyone else here doesn't have to believe a word I say. People I coach do and that's all I care about - that they perform and perform well. As for my credentials I''ve posted as much personal information on the net that I am willing to.

But you've never posted your credentials either, so why don't you putty up and give away your personal background on the net. C'mon champ', what, where and when did you study?

As for my *awesome* 3 w/kgs - you'll have to take a better shot than that. Amazingly the laws of specificity apply even to me and when one does not cycle one does not possess a good FTP. Triangle chokes and armbars do not transfer well to cycling, who would have thought? If you think that current performance is an indicator of past experience and ability or diminishes current knowledge then you're pretty naive or plain stupid. Or struggling for insults.

"Physiology is all just propaganda and lies... all waiting to be disproven by the next study.""I'm not a real doctor; But I am a real worm; I am an actual worm." - TMBG